Posts Tagged ‘flipping’
Our Resolution is a Revolution
What is a Lifetime Home?
Livable for the Lifetime
Any “house” can be a Lifetime Home. Regardless of square footage or type, a Lifetime Home will accommodate you and your family no matter what for as long as you choose to live there. In other words, a Lifetime Home adapts to you, the opposite of Peter Pan Syndrome, which produces houses designed and built as if nobody changes. A Lifetime Home isn’t a style, but an essence, a smart, high performance house regardless of climate or geographic area.
Does that mean it’s expensive? Could be depending on your choices and preferences. But making sure throughout the house that no outlets are lower than 18 inches nor any switches/controls are higher than 48 inches doesn’t cost an extra cent. NOT building steps could actually save money by…..not building steps. So as with so many questions, the answer “depends” on what you make it.
However, even if you want the latest and greatest in your Lifetime Home, you need to assess the total cost (i.e. actual expense and opportunity cost) over the long term. The Gizmatic might cost more today but what if it performs flawlessly, lasts forever, keeps you active, secure and comfortable longer? Or maybe you can live without. So cost is relative, particularly compared to the continued rising cost of long term and assisted care.
Finally, a Lifetime Home could be your dream house or “the last move” but not necessarily. More importantly and regardless of life stage (e.g. imagine children), a Lifetime Home is convenient, comfortable, efficient and secure for everyone (including visitors) no matter their age or abilities. A Lifetime Home is multi-generational for YOU throughout YOUR decades. A Lifetime Home is about ANY-ability not inability/disability. It’s simply smart.
How does your home measure literally? Grab a tape measure and review the BuilderFish Lifetime Home Survey to learn how your home compares.
Questions? Email me.
Lifetime Home Survey
I was on a mission and took six months developing the Lifetime Home Survey (LTHS), which was born of a single negative comment following a post class, feedback form. Without ever knowing his name, I still picture the disgruntled attendee with arms crossed, an engineering type who frowned the entire presentation.
His comment? “Didn’t give specific measurements!” I purposely avoided getting technical to reduce the likelihood of audience slumber; but, after reading Mr. Unhappy Engineer’s feedback, I vowed, “Metrics you want, measurements thou shall get!”
Call me obsessive compulsive but, with Mr. Unhappy Engineer’s scowl burned into my mind, what began as a simple checklist grew (out of control?) into a whole house assessment. I referenced 17 documents and architect teammate Charles Hendricks proofread the final product, what we believe to be THE most comprehensive Universal Design home assessment resource currently available on the web.
Think Universally
Not your typical soap dish
(This is the fifth of an on-going series about real estate flipping. My introductory post covered the basics and the third described an investor’s proper mindset before planning improvements.)
Every investor aspires to lead the pack, to be ahead of where the market is going before the herd follows. Given present day dysfunction in the credit, commercial and housing markets, this is particularly important for real estate investors, both cash flow and flip. For example, many are exploring lease-purchases and subject-to structures to buy time, wait out problems (e.g. appraised value, credit markets, unqualified buyers/tenants) and hopefully boost profits, or stem losses. If you’re going to make money in real estate, you absolutely must research and plan ahead as the speculative gravy days are over.
With being ahead of the game in mind, here’s an idea for making your investment property shine from a marketing perspective, appeal to a wider buyer/tenant audience and be at the forefront of a burgeoning demographic, seniors aging in place, and a continually expanding one, the disabled. (One quick comment about the latter, many perceive “disabled” as only “physical limitations” but brain injuries suffered from an accident or among war wounds are one of the fastest growing hardships facing residents who must rely on timers and monitors to prevent accidents in the home.)
Enhance Curb Appeal
Curb Appeal: They're doing it wrong.
(This is the fourth of an on-going series about real estate flipping. My introductory post covered the basics and the third described an investor’s proper mindset before planning improvements.)
Let’s review. Flip investors often make two money mistakes which chew their profit pie: underestimating quiet/holding costs and over-improving a home for a given neighborhood. It’s understandably easy to go overboard fixing a place because you’ve spent hours locating a diamond in the rough and you’ve fallen in love with the possibilities; but, the key to boosting and protecting your eventual net gain on sale is not to reproduce a diamond but rather appeal to a broad audience so the home sells quickly. You want your flip home to look sharp, but not necessarily be biggest, best and brightest in the neighborhood. Remember this series is looking from the perspective of a flip investor assessing what future buyers will find attractive in the eventual purchase property. I’m going to cover some generalities but neighborhood specifics will drive the improvements, which is why if you’re just landing on this post I encourage you to read first Know the Hood.
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